


Those who are left behind (do you know what you've done)

by Niennas_Apprentice (Niennas_apprentice)



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Angst, Bulma/Chi-Chi if you squint, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, F/M, M/M, Multi, Post Cell-games, everyone is sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-11
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2019-01-16 03:46:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12334878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niennas_apprentice/pseuds/Niennas_Apprentice
Summary: Vegeta needs a talking down and Chi-Chi is trying to not fall apart. Also Piccolo is there.Deals with the immidiate aftermath of the Cell Games.





	1. Vegeta

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone is sad and everything hurts.  
> I also want to thank @made-of-ink on tumblr for the beta reading <3

After the Cell Games, Vegeta walked through the hallways of capsule corporation, his feet leading him towards the training chamber. The chamber which also was a spaceship, his ticket off this horrible planet where he had nothing left. Kakarott was gone now, off to the otherworld. And all he wanted was to be rid of the dustball where he'd been stranded for his quest for victory over the peasant (it will never happen he is dead he is dead he is dead Kakarott is gone the imbecile). 

He turns the last corner, about to walk in and leave forever in his spaceship (the training chamber Bulma built for him, Bulma who is the mother of his child, his half blood son who came back in time who killed Frieza who is weak who is just a runt a halfblood a peasant just like Kakarott like Kakarott who is dead he is dead he is dead how dare he be dead how dare he how dare he leave him behind) when suddenly he walked straight into a surprisingly strong arm. An arm held out right in front of his chest, between him and the door away. He looked up.

Chi-Chi. That was… not who he had expected (for a second he thought it was Kakarott, because Kakarott would stop him, only Kakarott would keep him on this earth but Kakarott is dead he is gone he is dead he left him behind)

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Don't question me wo…! "

"’Cause Bulma is sitting in your apartment right now with the baby and she needs you there"

How dare she glare at him like that, didn’t she know who he was? What he was? (last of the mighty Saiyans, last because Kakarott is dead he is dead he is dead)

"Why would i care about her, she's just a woman" he scoffed, (he doesn't, he doesn't care about anything because all he cared about was winning was Kakarott and Kakarott is gone he is dead he is dead he is dead how could he leave me behind)

"She's the mother of your son! She is not just a woman she is your woman! And she needs you right now. Her oldest friend just died and she has a baby to care for and she needs you to be there with her! Trunks needs you to be there!"

Chi-Chi screaming at him made Vegeta pause in his thoughts. He looked at her face, red from screaming, angry eyebrows, but also something frighteningly desperate in her eyes. 

Oh yes, she was Kakarott's woman wasn't she? (Kakarott who is dead who is dead who is gone who left him) She too had been left behind hadn't she. He thought of Bulma, his woman. He thought of the child he had given her and of the man that child would become once upon a future that never would come to pass anymore (but it had already and his son, his adult son had gone back to that future to a world with an old Bulma but no prince of the Saiyans and no Kakarott because he is dead just like he is now like he is here Kakarott who is dead who is dead who is gone).

"I...I...I'm not... Trunks did just fine without me" he managed to say. Because that was it. Trunks his adult son who had never known his heritage, who didn't know anything about being a Saiyan, who was just a halfblood peasant boy. Not the son of the Prince of the Saiyans (last prince of the Saiyans, the saiyans who are all dead and gone except for him and Kakarott but Kakarott is gone he is dead he is dead now there's only one how dare he)

"FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE LISTEN" Vegeta were startled enough to actually back down a few steps. Suddenly he was very conscious of the fact that not only was Chi-Chi Kakarot's wife (his woman, his price, his mate, his...), but she had had Kakarott. Kakarott had been hers. He had never understood how that had happened, how Kakarott had settled for a meek useless housewife but under the furious, righteous anger of Chi-Chi's gaze he suddenly got it. 

Oh... That... changed things.

"I'm... I'm sorry" he said, for once in his life actually meaning it. She studied his face, and Vegeta got the feeling that she could see right through him, could see the confusion, the hurt, the anger that was raging inside him (because she would know wouldn't she, that Kakarott had left a hole in him like he had taken it with him because he was dead he is dead Kakarott is gone, Kakarott is dead, oh god why). Because she had been left behind, and was hurting. And he had been left behind, and it hurt. But he had meant to leave Bulma behind too hadn't he? He had meant to leave her and be gone and as good as dead. Meant to be no better than the peasant, imbecile Kakarott (who left him be like Kakarott the lowly peasant who is gone who is dead who is dead who is  _ dead _ ) 

Seeming to find what she was looking for Chi-Chi crossed her arms and just looked at him.

"So what do you think you're doing?" she asked, voice calm and low.

"I'm going home"

Because his woman needed him, and his son needed him and he had almost left them, the last child prince of the Saiyans and the woman who was his but also somehow had taken him,  _ him _ , the last true proud Saiyan left. Or maybe he could teach his son, raise him to know what it meant to be a proud Saiyan prince. He would go home to his woman because he was also hers. And he would not run away from his duty to her. Not him, the dutiful prince of the proud Saiyans.

(the saiyans who are dead who are gone cause Kakarott is gone he is gone he is dead but maybe I won't be the last one after all) 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up is Chi-Chi


	2. Chi-Chi

When Chi-Chi came home she felt empty, tired and exhausted. But when she went to cry herself to sleep (Goku is dead he is dead the bastard left me behind) she finds Piccolo waiting for her.

"What are you doing?" she asks tiredly, no energy left for more heartbreak, for more disappointment, for more men in her life disappearing.

Piccolo only frowns.

"Weren't you gonna leave as well? He's not here anymore so what do you have left to stay for?" saying it out loud hurts, but so much in her life has been about Goku, all her friends were Goku's friends first and foremost, even Bulma (her sweet sweet Bulma) was always his friend first and Chi-Chi’s second and now he was gone.

Piccolo stood up and walked towards her. 

“Do you want me to?"

Startled she looked up at his face, saw the worry in his eyes, so far from the demon that had wanted to destroy everything back at the tournament so many years ago (back when everything had been simple, back when she had thought she knew what she wanted back when it had been just her and Goku just her and Goku who is dead who is dead who is gone, and she's left behind)

He looked at her with such sincere worry and suddenly it dawned on her that she might have been wrong. After all, Piccolo had always been there for Gohan first. 

(Gohan that he had kidnapped, that he had trained, that he had been a father to when Goku was gone training out in space somewhere else, Gohan who had come home earlier with such tired old empty eyes, eyes not belonging to a child to her child to Goku’s child Goku who had trained him who had pushed him who was gone who is dead he is dead he is dead what do I do)

And then she had gotten used to him and somehow he had become part of her little family (her family that she had fought for that she had screamed for that was now broken and she hadn’t bled yet this month and it’s late it’s never late and he is dead Goku is dead he is dead he is gone he left me here, again).

“No, that’s not what i mea… I’m so… You..” the words got stuck in her throat. She wasn’t even sure what she had been trying to say because then his arms were around her and she collapsed into his strong grip. The tears she’d been furiously fighting all day burning behind her eyes. His strong safe arms that she had rested in countless times before around her (like she had rested in his arms in Goku’s arms in Goku’s who is gone who is dead her husband who is dead)

“He’s dead, not just gone off planet on some stupid training mission, he’s dead, and it’s just us left, just me and Gohan left..”

“And me”, Piccolo said gently, hugging her closer. “You and Gohan and me.”

 

The last dam inside her broke and the sobs shook her body in his safe grip as she cried loud and ugly against his shoulder. Because that was just it. It was just her and Gohan and Piccolo, the second father to her son (her horribly sad broken empty son how does one fix that how can she watch that what did you do). Him giving her the comfort she needed when the one who should’ve done it was gone (he’s dead he’s dead he’s dead), who in the beginning so long ago had flinched from her every touch, expecting violence, now freely giving her what she needed and holding her close. Because he loved Gohan, and Gohan loved her. And her Gohan loved him and she hadn’t realized it before, but now that the foundation of her world, her rock, her Goku, wasn’t there to bridge the gap, she realized that somewhere along the way she had grown to love him too. 

(and he loved Goku and she loved Goku and Goku loves them, had loved them had loved them all but he is gone he is dead he is dead, but they are not alone)

Piccolo, still so gentle, despite the hard thick muscles underneath his green skin, lifted her up and placed her on the bed, coming to lie down next to her and dragging her up in his arms, like she had used to sleep with her husband countless nights, like she had used to sleep with him countless nights. Like they had used to cradle each other and her inbetween.

(like they would never do again because he is gone he is dead he is dead)

And she knew that in the morning when she had to get up and make food for her child (her sad terribly hollow eyed son) she would do it, maybe even smile a little. And Piccolo would deny everything and pretend to not care. He would be dismissive of her and complain and grumble about everything.

But he would be there.

He would be there by her side, her green, alien, demon co-parent who loved her child as if it was his own. Who Gohan loved back just as fiercely. 

(soft, gentle Gohan, her son who never wanted to hurt the innocent, who never wanted to hurt even a fly who had had with such empty eyes when he thought no one was looking who had saved the world who he had made save the world and she wants to scream at him but Goku is gone he is dead and he won’t be back this time)

 

Maybe, just maybe, they could heal together.

 

(They can they will they will fight and build until the wounds heal and when he comes back he won’t see the scars he left all of us for the longest time)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's way too little Chi-Chi/Piccolo on this site. Here's my contribution. You're welcome.

**Author's Note:**

> It always bothered me that the show never really confronted how Gokus death impacted the people arround him.


End file.
